Crisis Response Plan Will Be Posted on the School Website
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School Crisis, Emergency Management and Medical Emergency Response Plan COURTLAND ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Spotsylvania County Public Schools July 2019 I. Introduction A. Purpose and Goal The purpose of the Spotsylvania County Public Schools School Crisis, Emergency Management, and Medical Emergency Response Plan is to establish a framework for emergency preparedness and response by specifying actions to be taken: ▪ Before an emergency to prevent, protect from, and mitigate the impact on life or property; ▪ During an emergency to respond to the emergency and minimize its impact on life or property; and ▪ After an emergency to recover from its impact on life or property. The goal of the Plan is to ensure the safety of all members of the Spotsylvania County Public Schools community through a rapid, coordinated, and effective response to and recovery from emergencies and disasters. Additionally, this Plan addresses Objective 3.1 of the Spotsylvania County Public Schools FY 2014-2019 Strategic Plan (maximize safety and security by continuously evaluating and refining plans and practices). B. Authority for Plan Virginia law requires that every school develop a written “school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plan.” Specifically, § 22.1-279.8., Code of Virginia, sets forth the following: Definition of Plan "School crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plan" means the essential procedures, operations, and assignments required to prevent, manage, and respond to a critical event or emergency, including natural disasters involving fire, flood, tornadoes, or other severe weather; loss or disruption of power, water, communications or shelter; bus or other accidents; medical emergencies, including cardiac arrest and other life-threatening medical emergencies; student or staff member deaths; explosions; bomb threats; gun, knife or other weapons threats; spills or exposures to hazardous substances; the presence of unauthorized persons or trespassers; the loss, disappearance or kidnapping of a student; hostage situations; violence on school property or at school activities; incidents involving acts of terrorism; and other incidents posing a serious threat of harm to students, personnel, or facilities. (§ 22.1- 279.8.A, Code of Virginia) School Board Responsibilities 1 “Each school board shall ensure that every school that it supervises shall develop a written school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plan, consistent with the definition provided in this section, and shall provide copies of such plans to the chief law- enforcement officer, the fire chief, the chief emergency medical services official, and the emergency management official of the locality. Each school division shall designate an emergency manager.” (§ 22.1-279.8.D, Code of Virginia) “The local school board shall annually review the written school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plans. The local school board shall have the authority to withhold or limit the review of any security plans and specific vulnerability assessment components as provided in subdivision 7 of § 2.2-3705.2.” (§ 22.1-279.8.D, Code of Virginia) School Superintendent Responsibilities “The local school division superintendent shall certify this review in writing to the Virginia Center on School Safety no later than August 31 of each year.” (§ 22.1-279.8.D, Code of Virginia) Other Related Laws and Regulations Virginia laws require schools to conduct fire drills, tornado drills, and lock-down drills (§ 22.1- 137, § 22.1-137.1., § 22.1-137.2.) and to report certain violations of law and of student codes of conduct. (§ 22.1-279.3:1.). Virginia Board of Education Regulations address the safety of school facilities, specifying multiple health and safety practices (8VAC20-131-260.). The Spotsylvania County Public Schools School Crisis, Emergency Management, and Medical Emergency Plan was developed in accordance with Code of Virginia § 22.1-279.8. The Plan also conforms with requirements for fire drills, tornado drills, and lock-down drills and proper reporting of violations of law and the student code of conduct. C. Scope This Plan focuses narrowly on specifying actions in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from school crises and emergencies. The Plan complements and is best understood in conjunction with other school division plans and procedures related to school safety, school security, threat assessment, suicide prevention/intervention, bus safety, and general procedures for medical treatment of students. The Plan does not duplicate information contained within the other plans and procedures, but cross-references them. 2 Numerous prevention and mitigation measures being implemented by the school division/school are set forth in the following related Plans and Procedures. Spotsylvania County Public Schools School Bus Safety Program (Policy EEAC) Spotsylvania County Public Schools Suicide Prevention (Policy JHH) Spotsylvania County Public Schools Threat Assessment Procedures (Policies EBB and EBB- R1) Spotsylvania County Public Schools Visitors Procedures (Policies KK and KK-R) This Plan is organized around the four phases of emergency management: 1) Prevention/Mitigation; 2) Preparedness; 3) Response; and 4) Recovery. Chapter II, Prevention and Mitigation; Chapter III, Preparedness; Chapter IV, Response; and Chapter V, Recovery provide additional information regarding these topics. For purposes of this Plan, school crises are organized into three categories: 1. “Crisis incidents” include situations that do not occur on school property or at a school event but negatively affect schools and to which schools must respond, but typically do not require an emergency response. Examples include death of a student, school personnel, or a member of a student’s immediate family by suicide, illness, or accident; non-school incidents injuring or victimizing a student or staff member; perceived crises such as tensions arising from racial incidents and rumors of potential violence between rival students. School administrators, guidance counselors, and other student services professionals typically have primary responsibilities in responding to crises incidents. The school principal shall have the discretion to determine what qualifies as a crisis incident and when to convene the Crisis Management Team. 2. “Critical incidents” are events that require an immediate response by public safety agencies and are managed by school administrators only until public safety officials arrive. They typically involve activation of a school Crisis Management Team. Critical incidents include but are not limited to natural and technological disasters and security emergencies that adversely affecting the normal operation of the school. Examples include tornados, severe thunderstorms/weather incidents, terrorist attacks, fire, hazardous material spills, school shootings, situation involving hostage and/or kidnapping, threats involving weapons; explosions; fugitive/suspect being pursued near a school by law enforcement. 3. “Medical emergencies” are those possibly life-threatening situations arising from health conditions as well as unintentional and intentional injuries. Examples include cardiac arrest, serious illness or condition, drug overdoses, seizures, playground accidents and 3 serious athletic injuries, and acts of violence (assaults) that require emergency medical treatment. School administrators, school nurses, and local emergency medical personnel typically have primary responsibilities in responding to medical emergencies. Drug overdoses and acts of violence will also require law enforcement involvement. Framework for School Crisis Management Type of Crisis Description Examples Who Typically Manages Crisis incidents Situations that do not Student or staff death; School occur at school but suicide; accident; perceived administrators and negatively affect crises student services staff schools Critical incidents Events that require an Threats involving weapons, Public safety immediate response fire, natural disasters agencies Medical Situations arising from Serious illness or medical School nurse and emergencies health conditions as well conditions; drug overdoses, local EMT as unintentional and serious injuries. intentional injuries. It is recognized that a crisis incident, critical incident or medical emergency can vary in scope and intensity. Situations can range from a non-emergency school crisis involving a single student to a life threatening situation affecting the entire school division. Incidents and emergencies can occur before, during or after school hours; on or off school property. D. Concept of Operations The Spotsylvania County Public Schools Plan has been developed in collaboration with and is coordinated with all appropriate public health and safety agencies within Spotsylvania County. The planning process has been informed by appropriate hazard analyses and risk assessments and addresses actions taken before an emergency to prevent, protect from, and mitigate the impact on life or property, actions to be taken during an emergency to respond to the emergency and minimize its impact on life or property, and actions taken after an emergency to recover from its impact on life or property. Collaboration with public health and safety agencies continues for the purpose of further developing and implementing strategies to mitigate, prevent, prepare for, and in the event of an incident, respond to, and effectively recover